Category Archives: shotgun

Contrary what the topic says this is not fully DIY. The steel adapter is made by fellow hobbyist called ferri. And the carbon fibre tube is from Ebay. It took some filing and Dremel’ing to make the follower pass the steel adapter smoothly.

This came to replace my current barrel-length aluminium magazine. This weights approximately 25 g less than the aluminium magazine and total weight without spring is around 150 g. I seem to have forgotten the magazine support from the picture. And I don’t have suitable spring in hand so no clue how many cartridges will it hold.

Steel, carbon fiber, plastic end cap and some 2-component glue to hold it all together. Total costs 30 €.

I’ve now tested the Baikal MP-153 and guess what? It fails to cycle 100%.

If you don’t know the whole story you might want to start reading here

This time it will throw out the empty shell out and will push new cartridge in the chamber, but about 20% of the times I shoot the gun empty it fails to leave the bolt and slide locked in the back. With high speed camera I was able to confirm that slide does not move enough for the locking to engage.

I did not bother to call the dealer nor the importer about this. I figured that now that the gun is out of warranty (according to importer, because I’ve added washer on top of the slide release button) then I might fix the gun by my self.

Got a call from the dealer. Gun was returned back to them “fully functional” with a hefty bill for “out of warranty repair”

Thankfully I did not have to pay a dime. Dealer took the loss here, big thanks to them!

Bright side is that now I learned that the gas valve ring should be adjusted so that the gap is at the opposite side from the gas ports. And I also know that goodwill is not dead. Did I mention that I very grateful for everything the dealer did for me. It was the gunsmiths that made me reconsider this whole “send to repair” – thing.

Update: There was a “minor” misunderstanding. In the end I had to pay 140 euros for nothing.

What the… what?! Oh just because I’ve added larger knob to slide release button the gun is now clearly out of warranty. Why do I have a feeling that if I go and test shoot this gun it will failure to feed?

Quick recap: Before sending the gun to warranty repair I cleaned the gun and for the sake of clarity adjusted the gas nut back to it’s factory default setting. I ended up paying 140 euros for them to lube, test-shoot and turn the gas nut one revolution in (where it oh-so-conveniently was before I adjusted it back to default settings)

If the gun will failure to feed I’ll have 3,5 kg worth of assorted metals for sale. (disclaimer, this scrap metal will require a valid purchase permit for *giggle* semi-auto 😀 shotgun)

Today I got a call from someone who I think was the importers gunsmith.

He started the call by questioning me whether I knew that Baikal MP-153 needs some adjusting in order to cycle reliably. He also reminded me that guns need oil and my gun was way too dry to operate.

I might have mentioned before that the gun is intentionally clean and dry

He was not implying that I might have neglected some maintenance with the gun. He was directly saying how I have not cleaned then gun, how I have no clue that slide surfaces needed oil and how I clearly have absolutely no idea of anything.

It made me wonder that next time I’m taking my gun to a gunsmith I probably should not clean it at all and soak it in oil. Happy gunsmithing with crap dripping piece of metal. But no. Next time I have problems with guns I’ll just recall my experiences with “professional” gunsmiths and use it as a reason to purchase a new gun. Fuck this. New Baikal costs 400 euros and I’ve used more than 20 hours cleaning, adjusting, lubricating and wondering what the hell is wrong with this gun. I might not use a gunsmith ever in my life. I’ve looked and helped my dad gunsmithing the shit out of every gunpowder operated machine for the last 25 years. With that experience I claim that there is absolutely no need for me to listen “trusted gunsmiths” telling me over phone how to turn a nut clockwise or apply oil.

This revealed me one thing. If the gun arrived dry to the second gunsmith then the first gunsmith did nothing.

But good news are that now the gun works. Cycles perfectly even with 24g loads! Bad news are that nobody knows why.

This last gunsmith only oiled the gun and “adjusted the gas system” of course he had to remind me more than 10 times how it is important to adjust and lubricate the gun. He did have one good idea though. He told me that it’s a good idea to leave the gas seal ring gap to the opposite side of the gas port so that the discharging gas would not leak trough the gap immediately.

Funny thing. I’ve made no claims that the gun must cycle with 24g loads. I’d be perfectly happy if the gun would cycle with 28g loads. Yet the gunsmith gave me a speech how this is a hunting gun and told me in degrading tone that it’s a fools business to think that this gun would work with skeet and/or trap loads.

Am I living in some sort of reality distortion field? Because first he tells me how he tested the gun with 24g skeet ammunition and the gun cycled perfectly and how I told that I’d be just happy if the gun would cycle with 28g and heavier ammunition. What a mess.

Oh and importer washed one’s hands of the warranty because I’ve changed the magazine tube and bolted a aluminum washer on the slide release button. Now I’ve lost the track. I don’t know where my gun is or who is going to pay the expenses. I’d just want my gun back now. I’ve learned my lesson not to seek help if in trouble.

There was once this Russian made Baikal MP-153 that used to work. One day it stopped loading new shell in chamber. After multiple dissassembly-assembly and careful inspection no-one could find the reason for the sudden lack of operation. Then gun was shot around 1000 rounds by then and it was no more than 6 months old and clearly under warranty so it was sent to the dealer.

I’ve never sent a gun with courier company before so I called the day the gun should have arrived at the dealer. “It’s the Baikal that shoot only full auto right? We received it yesterday” was the answer I got. Apparently they were unable to fulfill my request if they could just combine the faults of these two Baikals after mine have arrived. I could not help thinking about full auto shotgun. Usefulness 0, but such fun.

Special Squad attended a three day 3gun match in Estonia, organized by Rewal Shooting Club. Both shooters were in standard 3gun division and component matches.

Unfortunately one Estonian shooter was superior and won all three component matches (although shot one of them in Open division as the tournament in question allowed shooters to compete in non-3gun division in one match) and thus won the Standard division 3gun with 300 points. Second and third had 235.39 and 235.31 points.

Special Squad got one silver medal from shotgun component match. Unfortunately the longest stage in the shotgun competition was cancelled and this might have been the reason for not getting more medals!